The Tesco Deals website does advise checking your travel insurance, as they claim that most Insurance companies do not cover the value of the deals vouchers.

Bookings must be made direct with the Holiday/Cruise company, when you lose the advantage of the special deals and or additional discounts otherwise available through Travel agencies. I suspect that the insurance companies treat the Tesco Deals as a form of discount and will therefore only cover the cash element paid for the holiday. It is common knowledge that Cruise brochures in particular show a brochure price, which is invariably discounted by an average of 50%. On a forced cancellation, no-one would expect to receive back the brochure price,when in fact they have booked at a great discount.

I consider it grossly unfair to reduce the value of the Tesco deals vouchers, which once used are irreplaceable but this would seem to be the basis of the insurance companies reasoning.

Apparently there are some companies that do cover them but I have not yet found them. Best of luck with your continuing serach.

Peterpritch.

Huckster,

Thanks for taking the time to reply,like you say I will have to pay the extra to be on the safe side as it is alot to lose.

Half of my holiday is paid for with Tesco vouchers ( 2 years worth).

Meechelle

Meechelle

I think it will take an ombudsman ruling in a customers favour for this aspect to be reviewed. I suspect, so far Insurers have dealt with claims by negoitiating the amount settled in respect of the Tesco voucher element. I did have a look at the Flexicover Direct policy and could see no explicit information regarding holidays part paid for by loyalty type vouchers.

I can see it from Insurers point of view, that they are only looking at the money you have paid for the holiday. Tesco issue vouchers to incentivise spending and encourage loyalty, but the vouchers only have a nominal face value. In a particular offer some Holiday companies may give you 4x voucher face value but you have not incurred the extra cost. The Insurers would therefore only pay a nominal amount or pay nothing as you have said.

Have you asked Tesco Travel Insurance about how they deal with the voucher element? If they cover the holiday for the full equivalent cash value it may be worth paying the extra.

As another poster to this site comments. Cheap is cheaper for a reason!!! Make sure you check independent reviews of the Travel Insurers you are considering. The highest value claims are for medical treatment abroad and this where it is not worth gambling on a cheaper policy with a less well known Insurer.

Huckster

Huckster,

Unfortunately many insurers won't pay any of the portion paid for by Tesco vouchers ie.Flexicover Direct.

Nationwide will only pay a quarter of the value,they say this is because the original vouchers were say £10 but if used to pay for a holiday,the Clubcard deal is £40.I don't think they realise how much you have to spend to get the vouchers in the first place.Anyway thanks for replying.I will keep looking as I would like it to be a bit cheaper than Tesco insurance.

Meechelle

Meechelle

I would have thought how you paid for a holiday would not matter. The holiday would still have a cash value, that would be used when claiming. I had a quick look at the Tesco Annual Travel policy and I could not see any reference to clubcard vouchers and how these would be treated when looking at cost of holiday.

I would have thought that if you paid say £700 cash and used say 10,000 worth of vouchers for which £300 value given against holiday, total holiday cost £1000, Insurers would look at £1000 as the cost of holiday and not only £775.

My argument would be that if I used say 10,000 vouchers to buy a TV and the TV was stolen. I would claim against my Household Insurance for the replacement value of the TV. The Insurers could not turn around and say that they will only pay a quarter of the value of the vouchers used. I don't see why Travel Insurance would be treated differently. The idea of Insurance when valid claims are settled it to put you in the same position as before, less the excess amount. If Insurers only gave you £75 and not £300 against the value of the vouchers, this would seem unfair and could be overturned by the FOS if complaint made.

Which company advised you about only paying a quarter of the value of the vouchers? If this was Tesco ask them to clarify which section of their policy advises this.

Huckster

Are there any annual trip policies that cover holidays partly paid for with Tesco vouchers?

So far I have found they only cover the "cash" part of the holiday or a quarter of the voucher part, not the full price

of the holiday.

Thanks